Part 4 of my post about the A levels season... including the Physics Paper 3 episode which almost made me feel suicidal...
DAY 9
Yes... that was the day of that fateful Physics paper.
I was confident about Physics... I knew the concepts and aimed to get full marks for any question on Electromagnetic induction (where I only needed to regurgitate some Lenz's law stuff).
Also, I decided that I had to do my Options topic first... Physics of Fluids, as I thought that it was very easy to score in that section.
I was right... and I believed that my answers for the Options section were adequate.
The only bad thing about Options? I spent too much time doing it. I was advised to use 40 minutes on that section. I was overdue by about 30 minutes.
So, when I went back to do my Section A, it's expected that I wouldn't have enough time to complete the 4 questions I had to choose from the section.
And right I was again... I had time to complete 2 questions: The Ideal Gas question (lots of calculation and correction of careless mistakes) and the Waves and Superposition question.
The other 2 I decided to do were on Electromagnetic induction (I didn't remember seeing any Lenz's Law regurgitation question inside, though) and Charged Particle Dynamics. They were calculation-dominant questions too, so I had no time to do large chunks of them.
It's like what Esmond said on his blog... "marks lost without even a battle".
That paper left me feeling very down... I went to surf the net alone after the whole thing... listened to some songs, like Stefanie Sun's "Tong Lei (someone of the same kind)" which won the "Song of the Year" title at the YES 933 Hit Awards this year... well, there's this line...
"Is there anyone who needs consolation like I do?"
Sigh... It's like my farewell paper for Physics (I'll go into Chemistry if I get to further my studies) and I still flopped it...
Light papers await for the following days... Japanese listening and Chem Paper 1 (Multiple Choice)... so I took a break from mugging that day-
And got scolded by Mum that night ("Oh my... why is my child so unsensible, unlike other children... who else is surfing the Net during these exam days? Huh?")...
Whatever.
DAY 10
Japanese listening on that day. 2 pm.
I did some Chemistry MCQ practices in the morning (and surfed the Net, of course!) before going off to Bishan after lunch for the listening exam, which turned out to be... well, I think I only screwed up that "True-or-False" (state whether these statements are true or false based on the passage you heard) part.
After the listening exam I went to Junction 8 to do some shopping... and found one of the stuff I had been looking for these days... a Chara-kids Grumpig figure!
Grumpig
DAY 11
Chemistry MCQ.
And how I enjoyed doing MCQ practices... you can do it fast, and do lots of questions in short time... and practice your concepts well.
So I did my Chem MCQ compilation TYS with Melvin at the Auditorium block that morning... from about 8 am to 12 noon.
One problem encountered while I was doing practices on the "Group II Metals" topic was that there were a lot of questions which are either on sulphates or have some of their choices with statements about sulphates... because the trend of Group II sulphates are already out of the syllabus (for who knows why).
Anyway, after lunch, the IT Clu guys came together in the canteen for some crapping, which was catalysed by the arrival of Soo Hern. There was one instance when they're talking about the WCG competition which I knew nothing about.
Now for the paper itself...
Something stupid occured... I was barely punctual for the paper (due to last-minute toilet visitation-ation) and forgot to place my Entry proof on the table... I realized it only halfway through the paper when the invigilator came for checks. Thank God the entry proof was in my pencil case and not my bag (so I could take it out without too much trouble).
Still, it was quite cool to find many questions in the paper being repetitions of regular TYS questions (there're many who say that too)... and I was pretty confident. After everything, the only thought in my mind was that, if I'm going to score A grade for anything it's going to be Chem.
